Thursday, March 15, 2007

Celebrate the Ides of March

PS Good reading for the day: Walter Goffart, Barbarian Tides, which argues that Rome didn't so much fall as simplify itself to death via the rise of religious "work" and the elimination of the leisured class.

Karl, those of us who have actually met you know very well that you are exactly the kind of man that Caesar (and, according to my brother, Rodney Dangerfield) like to surround himself with: doughy and bald.

Yes - and tomorrow it is St Patrick's day. Today is Friday 16 March - and it was on another Friday 16 March in 1190 that the pogrom in York reached its dreadful climax. I have not got around to writing the post that I might have done - but at least I can add it to your list of anniversaries and ponder the uniquely human nature of such anniversaries in a brief postscript.

Thanks, N50, for that. Today I just finished and sent off via email an essay on medieval animals that touches upon -- very briefly -- the ha-Gadol mass suicide and murders in York (the essay touches upon the intersection of those events and a representation of Jews as a hyena in the Aberdeen bestiary). So, March 16 is very much on my mind today.

alright... so on the 15th we celebrate backstabbing (literally in this case) and on the 17th we celebrate christianization and drinking... cause you know there are never enough excuses to drink why not make a holiday out of one of them?